Craftside

Heart doodled with hearts Father's Day card inspired by the book The Art of the Doodle

Today, I have another Father's Day card tutorial. This one card design is inspired by an idea from the book Art of the Doodle Discover Your Inner Artist - Includes Instructional Book and Guided Journal.

The technique I used was to doodle an image with simpler, smaller doodles. In the book, they suggest drawing a wedding cake made of "x"s and "o"s. I decided to draw a heart made of lots of tiny hearts.

I started to assemble the card elements by first die cutting a pair of wings.

This gave me the placement I needed to doodle heart of hearts.

I stamped on a strip of paper "dad" and I punched out two sizes of ovals and stamped the letter "i".

Yup it's true, I "heart" my dad!

More about the Race Point book:

Art of the Doodle

Discover Your Inner Artist - Includes Instructional Book and Guided Journal

by

Eleanor Kwei

Doodles become art in this beautiful guided art journal.

 

The instruction book, Guide to the Doodle, gives tips on creating doodles, coloring with pencils and markers, and ways to use your doodles—such as for note cards, frames, gift bags, and more. There are six chapters—paisleys, flowers, letters, butterflies, mandalas, and geometrics. Artists will learn to start with a basic drop, then stretch it and squash it, and interlock it with other drops, nestling them all together to make beautiful paisley patterns. Nature will come to life, with tiny flowers blooming and butterflies flitting overhead. Geometric borders will adorn pages.

 

The art journal will provide an elegant place to experiment with all of the techniques described in the instruction book. The book will include elaborate coloring activities, as well as simple guidelines to get started on creative doodling pages. Inspirational quotations will add subtle meaning to the art pages.

 

When the journal is complete, it will be a beautiful book to be proud of and cherish.

Eleanor Kwei (Hudson River Valley, NY) is a graphic designer and illustrator specializing in pen and ink. Her work appears in over 30 published books for children and adults. In the Art of the Doodle, she combines her professional background in drawing and craft with her artistic passion, gently guiding the reader from basic steps towards building a portfolio of expressive and satisfying showcase-worthy pieces.

   

Use edible inks to print on tortillas from the book How to Create Your Own Gig Posters, Band T-Shirts, Album Covers, & Stickers

Check out this great idea for stamping images on tortillas with edible ink from the new book How to Create Your Own Gig Posters, Band T-Shirts, Album Covers, & Stickers: Screenprinting, Photocopy Art, Mixed-Media Collage, and Other Guerilla Poster Styles.

This gave me an idea. I love it when a book does that!

Why not try stamping on a tortilla with food coloring.

It was pretty easy. I put a drop of food coloring on a plate and spread it around. I dabbed the stamp in the food coloring and just started stamping. It took a few tries but once I figured out the right amount of food coloring the impressions came out pretty good.

I bet this would be a fun idea for party food or a great surprise in someones lunch!

More about the Voyager Press book:

How to Create Your Own Gig Posters, Band T-Shirts, Album Covers, & Stickers:
Screenprinting, Photocopy Art, Mixed-Media Collage, and Other Guerilla Poster Styles

by

Ruthann Godollei

Whether your band is just starting out or touring the nation, here’s how you can build its identity by making your own unique gig posters, custom T-shirts, album covers, record sleeves, and stickers. Fans want cool and creative band merchandise, and this book gives you the tools and information you need to create your own.

 

Author Ruthann Godellei is an artist and printmaking professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, with vast experience making gig posters as well as teaching band members how to make their own. She explains, with step-by-step instructions and photos, techniques like screenprinting, photocopy art, mixed-media collage, stencil, stamping, and other guerilla art styles.

 

Included as well is a gallery of art and artists to inspire you in creating your band’s look with your merch.

Ruthann Godellei (St.Paul, MN) is an artist and printmaking professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her work is in collections such as the Frederick R. Weisman Museum at the University of Minnesota, Rutgers University, Syracuse University, and the Centre for Fine Print Research, Bristol, UK.

American flag 4th of July card inspired by the book One Drawing A Day

Today's bit of 4th of July craftiness was inspired by this page from the book One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media. It features the art of Dominick Santise. The top art is an American flag out of people and hand prints. The bottom art includes thumb prints. So I made an American flag themed card with my finger print.

Try making some of your own art combining two other pieces—it's fun!

More about the Quarry book:

One Drawing A Day:

A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media

by

Veronica Lawlor

Through 46 daily exercises which make up a complete 6-week course, you will keep your artistic skills sharp and your imaginations fertile by doing One Drawing A Day. Each spread in the book features a beautiful drawing by one of 8 professional illustrators, with a description and comments by the illustrator as well as a companion exercise. Each exercise includes suggestions for various mediums or mixed-media solutions, advice on how to approach and execute the drawing, and professional tips.

Veronica Lawlor is currently on the faculty of Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design. Her work may be seen at www.studio1482.com/veronica. She blogs at www.veronicalawlor.com and contributes to www.onedrawingaday.com and www.urbansketchers.com.

 

 

Mail Art inspired by Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

Today I have a fun project that gets its inspiration from something that some of you may know about and some of you "young'uns" might not know about featured in the book Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail. Back in the day Deadheads sent (by mail) their money and requests for tickets. They would create art on the envelopes in hopes of enticing the ticket people to open theirs first thus insuring themselves tickets. Well, my spin on this is below. I have been going to on-line bill paying but I still get the envelopes. I do tend to still mail some stuff so I thought I would dress up these plain envelopes with my new Suzi Blu rubber stamps from Stampavie.

I had so much fun I can't tell you!

 

All I did was gather up the stamps, the recycled envelopes, the ink pads in a variety of colors, and the  colored pencils...oh, and a copy of Suzi Blue's book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish.

Then all I did was stamp away on the fronts and backs of the envelopes.

Then I colored in the girls as pictured in the book Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish.

I still have more to do but I can't wait to get back to them and make more!

If you appreciate envelope art or the Grateful Dead I bet you will love this book:

Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail

by

Paul Grushkin

Foreword by:

Bill Walton

Whether or not you've heard every song in their catalog, spent countless hours learning the chords to "Casey Jones," or were one of millions lucky enough to have seen them live, odds are the Grateful Dead are not complete strangers to your world. Since the band's earliest days, Grateful Dead staff saved tens of thousands of decorated ticket-request envelopes sent to them by Dead Heads hoping to capture the ticketing staff’s attention with their mind-bending designs. These envelopes are inspirational and hugely insightful, not to mention brilliantly illustrated and unique within the world of rock. Now, for the first time in print, these unique pieces of art have found a home.

This book collects more than 300 of these mind-blowing envelope masterpieces, all presented in 14 thematic chapters. Fully authorized by the Grateful Dead, Dead Letters also includes, for further historical context, many rare historical photos and memorabilia, all creating a trip, as it were, down memory lane.

Paul Grushkin is one of America’s top rock & roll historian. For more than 25 years Grushkin has been at the forefront of rock merchandising. As VP/Sales and Marketing for Signatures Network, Sony Signatures, and Winterland Productions, he designed and led the retail merchandising campaigns for nearly every top rock, pop, and country music band, including the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Ozzy Osbourne, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, New Kids on the Block, John Lennon, Madonna, N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, and hundreds of others. Visit him online at http://www.paulgrushkin.com/.

    

I love Crafty Blogger Links

Can you believe it's already February? How was your January crafting? I got a few things done and even more "in progress" (wink, wink).

Traci Bunkers, author of The Art Journal Workshop: Break Through, Explore, and Make it Your Own and Print & Stamp Lab:52 Ideas for Handmade, Upcycled Print Tools, posted a fun little video on how to stamp with an orange. Check it out:

 

More crafty links to inspire and delight!

 

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has a cool Steampunk-inspired Valentine artist trading block tutorial for you.

Craft Buds
Learn how to frost cupcakes like a pro and turn your favorite chewy candy into some fab cupcake toppers!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy takes a look at one of The Crochet Dude's newest books written for those of use who donate our crochet goods to charity.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
You can transform plain glassware into unique home decor. Check out Eileen's first attempt with transparent glass paints.

Mixed Media Artist
How can you resist a resist? Especially when it's as much fun as gel-based school glue!

RockPaperInk
Jason Tselentis dissects the graphic identities of the Republican Presidential candidates in "Points, Pixels, Paper: GOP Typography Roundup."